Truth
by ZekksGoddess
Summary: ObiWan was right. These three, simple words are full of meaning, be it deadly or satisfaction for three different people. Padme, Palpatine, AnakinVader


**_Truth  
_By: Jaina-Elessar**

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing. I'm not making any money…the usual.**  
**

**Rating:** PG

**Summary: **Three people realize, or admit the truth at a point in there life. One uses it to let go, another to mock, and another finds it to be pure torture…**  
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**Keywords: **right, Obi-Wan, Padmè, Anakin, Palpatine, Darth Vader**  
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**Genre:** angst, dramatic

* * *

"_I just lose control  
Down to my very soul  
I get hot and cold all over  
I feel the earth move under my feet  
I feel the sky  
Tumbling down  
Tumbling down  
Tumbling down" __-Mandy Moore_

* * *

Padmè Amidala screamed once more, not so much out of the pain of childbirth, but out of emotional pain. Obi-Wan was there beside her, murmuring soft words of comfort and smoothing a hand over her hair.

It didn't matter.

Another wave of pain overtook her body. Another scream of agony escaped her lips. She hardly noticed Obi-Wan squeeze her hand.

Obi-Wan…

The name only caused her more grief. Her breathing was ragged, and her dark orbs squeezed shut with pain. Physical pain again, of course, and that of memories…

Anakin's image flashed through her mind, and an agonizing scream escaped her broken heart. With amazing clarity, she could recall each word he had spoken, with such certainty, such anger. Her Anakin, her Ani…had fallen.

Another scream erupted, launched from the deep scar within her broken spirit. Obi-Wan murmured to her again, and though the words were quiet and hard to hear, she understood him. He knew she wasn't trying to hold on to that small fragment of life that dangled before her, threatening her with false hopes and the promise of a dark, lonely existence.

There was nothing left. Why would she want to live?

Again, the image of Anakin sprang to her mind. Obi-Wan's words from so long ago echoed loud in her ears as she saw Anakin, tall and strong, the wind angrily tearing at his cape as his dark silhouette stood against the wind.

He was right, she thought. Her screams had slowly faded by now, and her eyes opened slightly to see Obi-Wan, worry evident in his eyes. He started to become blurry, and suddenly he began to fade away. Her dark orbs fell closed again, and a single last thought fled her mind.

Obi-Wan was right.

* * *

It had begun slowly at first, but now the small chuckle of Darth Sidious had grown to a deep, bone-chilling cackle.

The Jedi had fallen, the Republic and all the last pieces of it were being taken care of… he had finally succeeded. The Sith had risen again to show their power, and now the galaxy was his.

A feral smile curled across his thin lips, and his bright, sickly eyes flashed. He had been accompanied however. Oh yes, he had been accompanied.

His apprentice, and the newest addition to the Sith Line, Lord Vader had made it all possible. The fool.

Sidious's long, pale fingers smoothed over the steely, cool edge of the deadly weapon he carried. He knew the Jedi had warned Skywalker numerous times about his anger, his eagerness…even his friendship with 'Chancellor Palpatine'.

But Skywalker –with Sidious's own cunning words- had been slowly turning away from the light path. The boy had a hunger to use the Force, and a deep desperation to protect those he loved…

He had been easy to seduce.

Sidious laughed again, a completely joyless sound. The pitiful boy's love had died anyway, and just as Kenobi had told him, Skywalker's dark path meant nothing for him anymore, and now there was no turning back…

He continued to laugh, and even his Red Guards, who were normally so vacant of expression, grew steadily more uncomfortable with the sound.

"Oh, young Vader, the pitiful, naïve boy. Forever mine, now. No matter what his broken heart may desire, there is no turning back from this dark path I have led him on. He hates everything he's done…I can _feel_ his anger grow to terrifying levels." The whispered words hissed from his lips, and his hideous features twisted into an obscene smile.

"He should know now, my apprentice should, that it was all his own doing. He was twisted and fooled by sly words of false comfort, blinded to the truth Kenobi laid out for him. He should know now, my apprentice should…

Obi-Wan was right."

* * *

Disbelief coursed through him, like fire within his veins. The Force tremored around him, objects flying, walls shaking violently.

The Force-storm raged, completely devastating the once-orderly room.

_How could he?_

The question rang through the newly titled Lord Vader's mind. After all he had done…

He had killed innocent people, friends, his love…

He had become someone that he had once been destined to destroy. He had become the evil he'd always dreaded.

He had, of course, achieved the power he'd always lusted for. But what good was it now?

His love, his angel…was gone. _Everyone_ he'd ever cared for was gone, either at his own hands or because of the things he'd done.

If his rage had slowed enough, tears would have streamed down the young Dark Lord's face, hidden by his dark mask.

Padmè, his lovely wife… her image found it's way into his head, and he could hear his former master's words of warning repeating over and over again within the chaos that was his mind.

Not wanting to remember what he had done to her, his lovely angel, he attempted to push her from his mind, though he knew it wouldn't last long. He focused on Obi-Wan's words, torturing himself by listening over and over again to the wise counsel of his former master.

_What have I done?_ The former Anakin Skywalker fell back against the wall, his body near-exhausted from the Force-exertion. _Why couldn't I have listened to him?_

Slowly, he slid down the wall until he was seated on the floor. His masked head was held in his hands as he finally let his heart admit the truth.

Obi-Wan was right.


End file.
